Now, sitting on my couch, pain consuming every inch of my body, I cried.
I felt like a rat trapped in some horrible maze that kept changing. When I had gone to Gary and Merrick, I had fully expected them to kill me when I told them I couldn’t find the box. I hadn’t expected them to abuse me and give me a second chance. It felt like they were toying with me. There’s no way I’d heal enough to scour the city to look elsewhere in one week. They sent me on a fool’s errand, and they knew it. I just didn’t know why.
So, I sat on the couch feeling sorry for myself. And I wasn’t sure how long I sat there before there was a knock on my door, and I swore if it was Gary, Merrick, or Ciro Mancini, I was going to fucking kill myself.
“Robbie?” I heard called through the door, and I’d never been so relieved to hear Mona’s voice. I forced myself to get up and walk to the door. When I opened it, Mona and Teddy were on the other side.
“Yeah,” Teddy added. “If you cry then I’ll start crying and I’ll have to burn my man card, and I know you don’t want that for me.”
I let out a tearful laugh, and it hurt. “Sorry,” I smiled. I stepped back. “Come in.” It wasn’t until I shut the door that I noticed Teddy had some bags in his hands. “What’s that?”
“Those are prepackaged and prepared meals,” Mona answered. “We figured it’d be one less thing you had to worry about.”
I felt like a wretched human being.
I was lying to the people who cared about me and I didn’t know how I had any other choice. I wasn’t equipped for this kind of lying and crime.
“That’s really sweet,” I replied, hoping I sounded grateful and not like a horrible human being.
“Here, let’s sit you back down,” Mona said. I didn’t say anything as she settled me onto the couch, trying to make me as comfortable as possible.
Teddy came back from the kitchen, after putting everything away, and brought me a water. He sat on the edge of the coffee table as Mona got comfortable on the other side of the couch.
He looked at me, and his handsome face was full of sympathy. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I gave a guilt-fill grimace. “I was mugged walking to the store,” I lied for the millionth time.
Mona shook her head. “First you get that in awful car wreck and now this,” she tsk’ed. “We’re going to have to put you in a bubble.”
“Is there anything we can do for you, Robbie?” Teddy asked.
I shook my head. “Not really,” I told him. “I’m…I am worried about my job though.”
“Why?” he asked. “I told the nurse at the hospital to tell you we had it all under control.”
I rolled my eyes even though my bad eye was still almost swollen shut. “Teddy, I barely went back to work after missing a month. Now I have to miss another month. Will Leda and Austin let you guys keep carrying me?”
“Don’t you worry about that, Robbie,” Mona started to say.
“How can I not, Mona? I need my job.” I knew I could try to apply for disability or try to collect unemployment, but I didn’t the first time and I didn’t want to do it this time. These beatings were of my own horrible decision-making and I wasn’t going to fleece programs designed to genuinely help people to get me through my fuckups.
“Robbie, even if Austin has to lay you off, you are a great waitress,” he said kindly. “You’ll be able to get a job somewhere else in no time.”
And then I almost laughed when I realized I most likely would be dead by the end of next week, what did it matter if I still had a job or not?
I smiled. “You’re right,” I agreed. “This is just a minor setback.”
“So, what did the police have to say?” Mona asked, forcing me to lie, and lie, and lie.
“They took down a report, but I wasn’t much help,” I prevaricated. “It was dark. They were two guys.”
“And Frankie?” she asked. “Did she come see you?”
I nodded. “Thank you for calling her,” I kept lying. “She came to see yesterday and stayed for a while. They had to go home though.”